Well it is finally set in stone

Hello awesome peoples!!! Hope y’all are having a great week. If it is anything like ours….it is super BUSY!!! The school year is ending for the girls, with summer & sports about to kick off, Lowdy!!! Well besides all that…I wanted to share with y’all my awesome Momma’s Day gifts from Jeff and the girls!!! He knew how much I wanted to add so much more color to my garden and they hit it out of the park for me!!

If ya missed my blab from last week….here they are in the pic below. Cute little “stone” garden markers. Made by the hands of my awesome hubs and my girls!! I wanted to share with y’all how you can make some of your own, which according to Jeff, they are pretty easy to do. So bare with me this time….I have to do an “interview” since I was not a part of this DIY party, hehe!! And here we go….

Cheap food storage containers (Jeff got a good bit of them from the dollar store)

Cooking spray (whatever you can steal from the kitchen cabinet without getting caught, like Jeff hehe)

Phewww….I think that is it. Sooo, if I miss something…blame him…just kidding, I will be sure to let ya know. I will say that all the supplies he purchased, made 12 garden markers!!! That was using 60lb bag of mortar and 25ft of wire….you may or may not need this many. But I did want to give you some reference as to how much their batch made.

To get started…you are going to need to stripe the wire of its casing. You will only need to be working with the copper “threads”. Jeff said that this step is fairly time consuming, which is why it is better to do it first so your mortar won’t start to dry on ya.

Now that all the wire is striped, will need your drill, wire cutters and pliers. First, you will want to cut the copper into approximately 36 inch long sections with your wire cutters. Doesn’t need to be spot on, just approximate will do fine. After all your wire is cut, take two or three pieces, insert them into the drill like you would your drill bit. You will want to do this next step little slow until ya get in a comfortable groove, but you still need to be careful not to snap your wire. Holding the opposite end (not in the drill) with a pair of pliers, begin pulling the trigger on the drill….remember take your time, allowing it to twist. Jeff did a few using two strands and others using three. The difference is very subtle, but still nice. You can alter your wire anyway would like, you don’t even have to twist it. This is just what Jeff and the girls have done for mine. Once it is twisted (or not), you can now make the bends and designs in the wire how you would want the to be. Jeff used a piece of wooden dowel to help with the swirls and circles, but you can you use anything really. Instead of circles, make squares or triangles or even zig zags simply using just a ruler. Just be sure to leave about 4 inches or at least non-swirled (haha)!

Okie doke, now that your wire is how you would like it to look, we need to make a few bends in the bottom of the wire (where you didn’t bend or swirl). This is only for when the mortar actually sets and may become a little loose. The bend will act as little hooks or feet to keep it in the mortar. About one inch or so from ends make 90 degree bend to create the feet.

Now it is nothing but smooth riding from here (hopefully). For this step you will need you bucket, mortar mix, trowel, cooking spray, containers and your glass stone or whatever decoration you decided to use. Prepare your mortar in your bucket as directed. Once you have done that….go ahead and take your containers and spray them with your cooking spray (don’t be stingy about it either). This will allow the stones to be removed easily from the containers once they have dried completely. Now you can fill your containers with your mortar. If your mortar is the consistency of peanut butter, slide you cooper into the mortar mix with the 90 degree bend going in to the mortar. If your mortar is still too wet to keep the cooper upright, just let it sit for a bit to stiffen up. When you insert your cooper, you will want to slide your cooper into the mortar at least half of its depth but you don’t want it to come out of the bottom either. Now that the cooper is in and able to stand upright pretty good, you can begin to decorate your mortar. This was the fun part for the girls. Jeff went to Hobby Lobby and the dollar store to pick out an awesome assortment of glass stones. Also used a couple things from around the house to give it a personal touch!!!

Once they have completely dried….they should pop out pretty easy (thanks to the cooking spray)!!! This is what you get with the containers Jeff bought. He said this wasn’t the ones he wanted to get, grabbed on accident, but I think they turned out perfect for the spots I wanted to place.

I have small ones for some of my potted plants…..

Litter bit larger for my veggie garden and flower garden…..

I love them!!!! My favorite things have always been what Jeff has created for me and now I am getting things that they ALL created for me. Makes me smile so big!!! This would be a perfect gift or project for almost any age to create or help create. I do apologize for all the basic stock photos but I just had to share.

We hope that you saw something here today to help you during your own crafting & life adventures. We encourage our readers to share their own projects in the comments as we absolutely LOVE seeing what others were inspired to create. We also kindly ask that comments be polite or constructive.